Advice for a Lifetime
by theletterdee
Summary: Snippets of a special relationship between Minerva McGonagall and Diana Langdon. Minerva gives Diana advice that will help her throughout her life. Xmas gift for a friend
1. Time

Advice for a Lifetime

By: The Letter D

Disclaimer: I don't own the world or characters of Harry Potter, Dan Brown, Stargate: SG-1, or Sanctuary. I just like to play with them, honest! Diana Langdon is my own character, though, so treat her nicely!

**Dedicated to ma tante, Cielita: Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!**

0oo0oo0

"**Time" by Libera**

"Professor?" Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, looked up from the papers she had been grading to see a Ravenclaw student standing the doorway of her office.

"Miss…Lumen, is it? Can I help you?" She set down her quill and motioned for the girl to come further into the office. The fourth year Ravenclaw student quietly closed the office door behind her before coming to stand before Minerva's desk.

"Professor, do you believe in a God?" Diana Lumen's question startled her, it wasn't what she had expected, but then again, Ravenclaws tend to ask obscure questions.

"Yes, I do, Miss Lumen. I was raised in the Church of Scotland and I'm a Christian by choice, why do you ask?"

"I've been thinking," Minerva bit back a sarcastic reply as Diana continued, "I'm almost fifteen, come June, and I don't know where I stand in life, in my beliefs."

"Miss Lumen, you're only fifteen, the world isn't expecting you to find out your life's purpose right now. It's natural at your age not to know what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life. When I was your age, I was worrying about whether or not I'd pass my O.W.L.s, let alone what I'd be doing after school."

"But you did think about it?"

"Of course, I'd dream about my future and make plans, but some don't always turn out the way you expect them to."

"Like how?" Minerva was surprised to see so much wisdom emanating from those sapphire blue eyes that were quite the opposite of her sister's mischievous brown.

"Like, for example, when I graduated school, I went into Auror training and fought in the war against Grindelwald. I dreamed of having a family and continuing in the Auror ranks," Minerva smiled softly, "Little did I know that participating in the war would lead me to teaching."

"What about your family?" Diana questioned, her tone simply curious.

"I met a man, yes," Minerva's smile brightened, "We have three daughters, one adopted. We have five grandchildren from all of them and we're happy."

"So, I shouldn't worry about my future too much?"

"Think about it, yes, worry? No, thinking too much about the past or future will lead you to forget to live the present. What you experience in life helps shape your beliefs and where you stand. I was raised in the Church, but that didn't stop me from experiencing things in life to reaffirm my belief in God and in Christianity. That was the purpose of human beings, Miss Lumen; we were given free will to choose as we please. If you'd like I could give you some books on the different religions of the world for you to read."

"Thank you, Professor, you've helped a lot," Diana answered softly, playing with the ever present silver pendant around her neck.

"May I ask what brought this thought up?"

"Lately I've been feeling distant from my parents and sister, it's like I don't even belong to the family on some days. I see bits of my father and mother in Kaylee, but not in me."

"Perhaps you're just the black sheep of the family, Miss Lumen," Minerva remarked, "I was the same."

"I just identify more with a woman who I haven't though about in a very long time. She was in my life up until we moved here to England. I don't even remember her name anymore and my parents don't want to talk about her, Kaylee doesn't even care, she says I think too much."

Minerva huffed, "I think your sister needs to think a bit more, the way her grades are looking. What was this woman like?"

"She was smart, passionate, caring. She would give me books and answer all my questions no matter how obscure or specific. We would take trips around New York City together; her knowledge of how things evolved over time was amazing. She was the one who gave me this necklace shortly before we left America," Diana held up the pendant, Minerva recognized the Claddagh symbol on top of the key, "saying that she'd 'always be in my heart no matter what', I remember not wanting to leave and that my parents told me I couldn't keep in contact with her once we started at Hogwarts since she didn't know of my magic."

"Maybe you'll get back in touch with her, but have I answered your questions for now? I can get you those books if you want to read them."

"I'd like that, Professor," Diana smiled, "and thank you."

"For?"

"For listening even though I'm not one of your Gryffindors."

"My office door is always open, Miss Lumen, all you have to do is knock," Minerva handed over the books to the young Ravenclaw and went back to her grading after Diana left her office.

0oo0oo0

Minerva sat down behind her desk with a sigh; the news of the death of Kaylee and Diana Lumen's parents had hit them hard so soon after the war. The girls acted out their grief in different ways, Kaylee turned brash and loud, she was angry that a simple car crash had killed her parents after they had all gone through so much. Diana on the other hand detached herself from the situation, looking at it through an analytical gaze.

It brought Minerva back to a conversation the two had little over a year before, where Diana had remarked that she didn't feel like she belonged to the Lumen family. Now that she thought about it, Minerva could see that Diana was very different from her parents. Kaylee was a perfect blend of her mother and father, but Diana was the oddity, that and she looked different from them as well. As far as Minerva knew, nobody in the Lumen family had ever had blue eyes, especially not that keen shade of it.

She couldn't help but worry for the two, as they wouldn't be attending Hogwarts come fall. Instead they were moving back to America where they would reside with their godfather, Doctor Robert Langdon. He was a nice man, a good man, they had met at the funeral and it was there that she decided that the two girls going to live with him would be for the best. The Wizarding World was still recuperating from the second war against Voldemort and both girls had seen the horrors that had come from it.

Kaylee had resisted the offer of staying in touch with a cold look, not wanting the pity of others. Diana gave the professor a small smile that didn't quite meet her eyes and promised to write as often as she could.

Minerva watched as they were led away from the gravesite by their godfather, Albus waiting patiently by her side as always, "I worry for them, Albus."

"We cannot always help them, Minerva, sometimes they have to forge on through life on their own. They know we're always here for them, it's up to them if they are willing to accept our help."

"I know," she sighed, "that's the hard part."

0oo0oo0


	2. Lift

"**Lift" by Poets of the Fall**

She kept tabs on them through her connections as well as Diana's long letters. Kaylee pushed through her schooling and went on to become a criminal investigator after she had been attacked at seventeen, leaving her with a young daughter. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and periodically spoke to her sister and all but gave up on the magical world. Minerva had gotten the feeling that Kaylee was a trouble child from the start, but she would have never pegged the girl for shunting aside her heritage.

Diana on the other hand had excelled in her schooling, both magical and non-magical. After graduating from public school and Salem Academy, she pursued many advanced degrees. Always the Ravenclaw, Diana thirsted for knowledge, which led to obtaining four doctorates in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics (something Minerva suspected she would have pursued had they stayed in England), and Symbology. Diana was happy, Minerva could sense it in her letters. She traveled, always sending her older pen pal a small token from whatever country she was in.

Minerva had been awaiting another letter when Albus came in and told her the news: Diana had disappeared on her latest dig site, leaving no traces behind as to who would have done it or how it had happened. When Diana's letter came the next day, Minerva read it with a heavy heart, and vowed to wear the small necklace included with the letter always.

She sent up a silent prayer every night as she crawled into bed, her mind thinking back onto that conversation almost ten years ago. They had spoken a bit more about religion and beliefs in their letters, but Minerva sensed that her young friend still didn't know where she stood in her beliefs.

'_Where ever you are, I hope you are well_,' Minerva thought with a sigh.

0oo0oo0

A knock on her door surprised her, not many people came by during the summer holidays. She squinted at the silhouette in the doorway, "Yes?"

The person stepped forward into the light and made the unflappable Minerva McGonagall gape like a guppy, "Long time no see, Professor."

"Diana!" Minerva hurried from behind her desk to embrace Diana tightly, who leaned into the warm hug, "How?"

"Long story, but I am allowed to tell you," Diana grinned. "I was on the dig site and disappeared as you know. From there I was transported to another planet, Yavin 4, where I was trained in techniques of the mind much like magic."

"And you were there for four years?" Minerva led them to two chairs by the fireplace.

"Yes," she smiled. "You wouldn't believe how advanced these people were! Capable of interstellar travel! I was on another planet, Dantooine, looking for the lost archives of the Old Jedi when I was attacked by these beings with armor that gave them serpent heads, I thought they were some of Voldemort's old followers," Diana laughed causing Minerva to smile at the young woman in front of her.

"What happened?"

"I took them all out, but not before one of them managed to hit me in the shoulder and I passed out. Four people from Earth saved me, they took me back to America where I eventually healed and now I work with them."

"How did they take you back to Earth?"

"Through a device known as the Stargate or Chappa'ai as they're also called. It's a ring that was created a long time ago and transported to different planets. Beings called the Goa'uld used it to transport ancient humans from Earth to other planets where they were used as slaves and also hosts."

"So, these aliens are…parasites?" Minerva questioned after absorbing all this information.

"Yes, they take on humans as hosts unwillingly."

"And this Stargate instantly transports you to other planets?"

"Yes."

"Sounds fascinating."

"It is," Diana grinned, "I get to see different cultures that I never would have here on Earth."

"I'm glad you're finally happy," Minerva leaned forward to cover one of Diana's hands. I worried that after your parents died you would succumb to your grief or act out like your sister."

"Kaylee always was a little bratty," Diana remarked as she squeezed Minerva's hand, "I checked in with her and she didn't seem to want to be bothered so I just let it go. I have a new family now and a job I love to do."

"I can see that, stay in contact?"

"Always," the two then passed the afternoon in soft conversation and laughter before Diana returned to Colorado.

0oo0oo0


	3. My Lady Sleeps

"**My Lady Sleeps" by Mediaeval Baebes**

"Albus! Albus, look at this!" the former headmaster of Hogwarts walked out of his study to see what his wife was excited about.

"What is it, my dear?"

"Diana's expecting!"

"Expecting what?"

Minerva gave her husband and exasperated look and sighed, "She's expecting a child, Albus, a boy due in February."

"That's wonderful news, Minerva, tell her my congratulations," he responded before kissing her forehead lovingly.

"You are a strange, old man," she muttered before moving to write Diana their congratulations and hoped they could go and visit her after her son was born.

0oo0oo0

"Diana, he's beautiful," Minerva traced the newborn's soft cheek with a gentle finger. Her young friend, who she thought of as another niece, was resting on one of the beds in the Air Force Academy Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Minerva and Albus had made a trip out to see Diana a few days after she had given birth to her son, Connor Alan.

"Thank you," Diana smiled tiredly back, "he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for SG-1, otherwise, he might have been born on another planet," she chuckled at the thought.

"I for one am thankful that they were able to bring you back here before the worst of the labor started," Minerva handed Connor to Albus and sat on the bed next to Diana and squeezed her hand.

"So am I, believe me. How is everyone?"

"Our daughters pass on their congratulations and demanded we come back with pictures. Poppy was going to come, but had an emergency in the Hospital Wing and couldn't make it. The rest of the staff is awaiting pictures to gush over as well."

"Good to know."

0oo0oo0

Minerva was updated on Connor's milestones as he grew up before her eyes in the numerous pictures Diana sent along with her letters. He was a darling little boy who looked much like his mother and shared her natural curiosity for everything.

When Connor was about two, Diana wrote a very long letter about how she had finally found her birth family. Minerva knew that Diana had come to terms with the news that she had been adopted after the young woman finally went through her adopted parents' personal effects since Kaylee had closed herself off from her previous life. She knew that Diana had looked into finding her real parents, but work at Stargate Command had distracted her.

The letter was interesting to say the least as Diana described her initial encounter with a juvenile Nundu in an alley had brought the two parties together. Diana had recovered from her wounds under the care of her mother, Doctor Helen Magnus. The young woman then went on to describe the work her mother did to protect Abnormals, or magical creatures, as they knew, and to understand them without the outside world even knowing what was happening beneath their noses. She included a picture of Helen Magnus and her other daughter, Ashley, as well as Henry Foss, the tech expert of the Sanctuary, and Big Guy, Helen's manservant and trusted friend and advisor.

Albus had found Helen's face familiar, pondering about it until Minerva mentioned that Helen was about an hundred and fifty years old. The light bulb went off and he remembered that she had made the papers when Oxford allowed her to take classes back before they openly accepted women. He then expressed an interest to meet her, after all, it's not often you meet another person outside of the magical world that's as old as you were.

Minerva just chuckled and patted his bearded cheek.

0oo0oo0


	4. Pieces

"**Pieces" by Red**

She couldn't believe it, she just couldn't.

The tear-stained letter was still in her shaking hands as she stared into the slowly dying fire.

"Minerva?" her husband's voice startled her from her thoughts that had been growing darker by the minute.

"He's gone."

"Who?"

"Connor, Diana's little boy."

"How?" He gasped after a stunned silence. Minerva wordlessly handed him the letter.

_Auntie Min, _it started and he had to smile at the nickname Diana had given Minerva.

_I write this to you with a heavy heart…Connor is gone, some heartless monster killed him while I was beaten and raped in an alley in New York City._

_I can't believe it, my flesh and blood, my __**son**__…gone. He would have been five in two months and they ripped that away from him all because they wanted to teach me a lesson! I'll never see my boy go to school, graduate. I'll never see him fall in love or have children of his own. _

_I watched, hopeless and speechless, as his blood, my blood, spilled out of him in that dark alley._

_My hope in humanity is falling even more than it used to, what kind of person does that to an innocent child?_

_I asked you almost fifteen years ago whether or not you believe in God. If there is a God, how could he let this happen? Does it somehow serve some greater purpose to take my son away from me now rather than let me enjoy having a child?_

_I'm angry, confused, and hurt, Min. Why? Why did this have to happen? How can I move on from this?_

_Love, from all my heart,_

_Diana_

"Oh, Min," He gathered his wife up in his arms and held her close as she mourned the loss of a well loved child. Albus rubbed her shaking back even as his own tears slipped out of sad sky blue eyes.

0oo0oo0

The funeral was a quiet affair held in Colorado Springs. Minerva sat behind Diana as her mother on one side and her best friend, Major Samantha Carter on the other, supported her. Halfway through the ceremony at the gravesite, the grey clouds that had been building all morning opened and a gentle rain began to fall on the mourners.

Minerva observed Diana with a nurturing eye as she pushed through the wake. All of her teammates embraced her tightly, especially the leader, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Her mother and sister were there to catch her tears and Henry even managed to crack a smile on her face.

The interactions she found most interesting was when five people, obviously people who worked together, came up to Diana. Her body language was cold towards them, but still she listened to what they had to say, even shook their hands and gave a polite smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Minerva decided to intervene, instantly seeing the way Diana relaxed when she came over, "Albus would have been here, sweetheart, but the Board of Governors had some questions about the school." The look in her eyes also asked the question of whether or not these people were bothering her.

"I understand, Min," Diana nodded before turning to introduce her to the five people. "Min, this is the Special Victims Unit from Manhattan, Captain Donald Cragen and Detectives Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, John Munch, and Fin Tutuola. This is my mentor and adopted aunt, Professor Minerva McGonagall."

"We're sorry for your loss," it was Olivia who spoke up first. Minerva could sense that she truly meant that statement.

"Just get the person who caused this," Minerva glanced down at her 'niece', taking note of the fading bruises on her face and around her neck, as well as those around her wrists.

"We're doing the best we can," their balding captain nodded.

"I understand that these things take a while, Captain Cragen," Minerva almost snapped. "I'm not some green-gilled detective you can placate with a sentence," she could see why Diana had reacted so coldly towards them, they were infuriating, well, the men were at least, "I will be monitoring this case to see that you are actually doing the best you can to get that monster off the streets before he harms another woman and her child."

Cragen just nodded, the other men had stony looks on their faces, and Olivia ducked her head, realizing that they were just told off by someone who didn't put up with nonsense. After a few moments of tension-filled silence (which Minerva spent giving them one of her patented 'McGonagall stares'), the five detectives from Manhattan left the wake.

"Thank you."

"I'm always here for you, Diana," Minerva held her niece close, "you just have to remember that."

"I will now."

0oo0oo0


	5. Here Comes the Sun

"**Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles**

Diana had written her right away once she had adopted a ten-year-old alien girl. Kailin Samantha was a shy girl with blonde hair and blue-green eyes. Diana found her when the doctor had been thrown in an alien prison on another planet. Kailin's parents were already dead, having been executed for their magical capabilities, it just so happens that the governing aliens had the ability to scan for the magical gene. They immediately threw Diana into the prison without any trial and refused to release her back to SG-1.

Daniel Jackson had been insistent that they rescue Diana and had been the one who found her and Kailin in a dirty cell. Minerva had to smile at the semi-complaining Diana had for Daniel's hovering after that mission. It was nice to see that Diana was feeling better. Connor's death had devastated the young woman, especially coming so soon after the ascension of Daniel.

Minerva mused over the growing admiration Diana held for her colleague and couldn't help but wonder if the two doctors would ever wise up at actually do something about their feelings. Albus agreed and they often had long conversations about the two "lovebirds" as they liked to call them.

They got their answer when the simple wedding invitation came one day. Albus couldn't help but chuckled at his wife's enthusiasm as she immediately sent back their RSVP.

It was Minerva and Albus who kept Diana calm on her wedding day as she was a jumbled bunch of nerves, making her bridesmaids, Sam, Ashley, and Doctor Janet Fraiser laugh as Helen and Minerva put the finishing touches on Diana's hair, make up, and dress. Kailin looked splendid in her dress of sunshine yellow, complimenting the sky blue dresses of the bridesmaids.

General George Hammond walked Diana down the aisle and handed her off to Daniel waiting at the alter. Minerva could have sworn that he secretly tried to brush away a few tears as he sat down next to Diana's mother, much to Helen's amusement. The couples exchanged their own vows, regaling their audience many tales of how their love grew over the years and also how Daniel came to propose when they were stranded on a planet separated from the rest of SG-1.

The reception was wonderful. Jack, the best man, embarrassed the newlyweds with all sorts of stories that had happened over the past eight or so years that they had all worked together. Sam was the one to stop him before she made her own speech. Before they had their first dance, Daniel and Diana gave Kailin a locket inset with a disc of pearl as a way to adopt her as well as he signed the adoption papers to formally claim her as his daughter. The little girl was thrilled to say the least.

Daniel twirled his new wife around gently as they danced to "Here Comes the Sun", both of them grinning as they danced. Other couples were encouraged to come out onto the floor partway through the song and Albus immediately led her out there, ignoring her half-hearted protests. She observed the other couples around her: Jack and Sam were holding a soft conversation as they swayed near Diana and Daniel, Henry and Ashley were dancing together under the watchful, but happy eye of Helen.

"Penny for your thoughts, my dear?" Minerva turned her emerald green eyes up into the twinkling blue of her husband, the love he had on their own wedding day still shone bright today as it had all those years ago.

"I'm happy, Albus, I'm happy that she's happy. That she's finally found her place in this world," Minerva nodded over to Diana as they cleared the dance floor for the traditional "father-daughter" dance, though the new couple added a twist to it. While Diana danced with General Hammond, Daniel danced with Helen, causing the older woman to smile brightly and let out an occasional giggle. "She's found her purpose in life."

Albus smiled and wrapped his arms around his wife of many years before kissing her on the temple, "I'm happy that you're happy."

"Charmer," she chuckled.

0oo0oo0


	6. The Sacrifice

"**The Sacrifice (from "The Gift")" by Christophe Beck**

The dried and fallen leaves crunched under her sure footsteps and swirled around her ankles. The cool wind teased the brown curls free underneath her beret and turned the end of her nose a slight pink. Sapphire blue eyes searched until they came to rest on a familiar marker.

She knelt with some difficulty as her expanding stomach sometimes got in the way. Gentle fingertips swept away the leaves that had settled on the white marble. They traced the engraved letters that formed the name of two very old friends.

Their deaths had come as a surprise, nobody had seen either one of them coming. But soon after one died, the other followed, not wanting to be apart for too long. She wiped a few escaping tears away as she read the names in front of her:

_Here lies Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, a great man, gentle father, and loving husband._

_Here lies Minerva Caitriona McGonagall-Dumbledore, a wise woman, loving mother and wife._

"Nos must amitto vivo en," she whispered to the cold marble stone, "we must let go to live on…"

She tightened her coat around her as she stood to shield herself against the sudden burst of cold wind, "Thank you, for being there for me, even if I didn't realize it. Others may forget you and you may only be mentioned in history books, but I won't forget about what you have done for me…never."

As she turned to leave the grave behind, a small wreath of thistle appeared before the tombstone and she could swear that she felt a warm kiss on either cheek. It made her smile a she burrowed into the warm of her coat and exited the small graveyard.

0oo0oo0


End file.
